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Ikigami, The Ultimate Inspiration

This semester I’m taking advance drawing, whatever that means, because I definitely do not think of myself as advanced anything. Our professor is really cool (as most art professors are) and everything so far has been perfect. The only thing I will have problems with is my homework.

The first day of class the professor gave us our homework, and it’s the type of homework that you don’t have to turn in immediately, in fact she may not even check it until the last day of class. What is wrong with the homework? Well, it’s nothing else but to complete a sketchbook by the end of the semester. And by that I mean, each page, full of some drawing or sketch. If you still don’t see where the problem lies, then maybe I should tell you how much of a lazy person I am. Let’s add to that the fact that I do not work with a sketchbook. I have three sketchbooks, but I only use one, and barely. To me, a sketchbook is nothing more than a notebook for art class. I do my homework (the ones you usually turn in by the next two or three days, and never involves having to sketch anything) and I might -sometimes- do a sketch of something that, might -definitely- become a drawing by the time I finish sketching it, so it’s never really a sketch. Although, without counting the ones I had to do in class, I have done a few sketches in the course of my life, -around five, to be exact, including the one I did a few days ago, “Back To School, Back To Drawing!“- it never felt like it helped much.

Well, I started the sketchbook for this class. And I have to say that I’m pretty into it. I have no idea what has changed within me, but something is clearly different. I have managed to fill up to three pages in two days. And the results are wonderful. I started with a simple ten minutes gesture, and went on to draw (copy is more like it) having as reference one of the characters from a manga I’m reading, and which I have mentioned before in my post Summer Reading, and my Poor Habit; Ikigami, The Ultimate Limit. This manga is one of the best out there right now, and I love, absolutely, the way the artist draws. So I decided to get a little help from him, and I have done something I was never able to do before; I have done shadow the right way. That is, I have made use of my pencil and nothing else; not my fingers (professor says that is a complete no-no) not q-tips, nothing except my pencil. This is what came out;

Still, this guy needs some fixing, his nose is too small for his face. This is a problem I have, where I tend to ignore the rules of proportions.

Then, I drew this guy, and boy was I shocked to see how good everything came out considering I never really did shadowing in this way. It never came easy, and it was always a pain to do lines instead of just filling it in and then smudging it with my finger or a q-tip. I think I’m getting the hang of it pretty good. This is complete proof that practice and schooling is worth it. Aside from that, I really didn’t do a sketch, did I?

Well given that the poor guy has just gotten an Ikigame (death papers) he is a little shocked and scared.
Thanks for the feedback my friend. Today I will continue with the Fujimoto, the main character (the second guy) I want to practice as much as I can. I’m thinking that there is a 70% chance that I’ll end up becoming a manga artist. Writing and drawing, what more can I ask?